Nicholas and Alexandra is an
ambitious, sprawling, and well-meaning motion picture
about the remaining members of the Romanov family dynasty in Russia.
The
characters are in the thrust surrounding revolution and changes to
Russian
government. Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and produced by Sam
Spiegel, this
is an expansive and determined motion-picture from 1971.

Yet
Tsar leader Nicholas (Michael Jayston) and his wife
Alexandra (Janet Suzman) hardly pay any attention to these dramatic
shifts in
the times of their country, and they are both far more concerned with
caring
for their sick son, who was born with an illness that caused exorbitant
grief
for their family. Along with their several daughters they live a family
life
that seems to some extents ordinary. However, they fail to recognize
the
country's needs and they live out lives of great wealth and royalty.
Following
revolts that occurred from Russia's starving and suffering people,
millions of
Russians died in a great tragedy, and the course of the story has
become more
complex in significant ways; affecting all of Russia along with the
Tsar family.

This
isn't a perfectly structured film that excels on every
level of filmmaking. I found there to be a lot of good effort involved
in the
production anyway. This isn't really
average as a film. Not by any means is this merely "average" on
technical
merits. But does it excel to the heights it hopes to achieve? That
really
stands as a far more intriguing question regarding the success found
within Nicholas and Alexandra.

The
direction of the film by Franklin J. Schaffner (Planet of
the Apes, Patton) is actually quite good in some
respects. The film has many
interesting moments visually and it sometimes has performances that are
also
quite interesting and worthwhile. These are definite marks of good
direction
and should by all means be positive qualities acknowledge about the
film's direction.

However,
the film doesn't hit a perfect stride at any point
during the entire story. This is both Schaffner's fault as director and
the
fault of the screenwriter James Goldman, who adapted Nicholas
and Alexandra from the
novel written by Robert K. Massie but forgot to make
characters that people in the audience could feel invested in more.

None
of the characters feel well developed. This is
particularly problematic for the script as everything is dealing with
real
events and people and none of them seems particularly well portrayed.
This is
also dampened even further by weak pacing. Sometimes the film feels as
unbelievably flat and uninvolving as one can imagine. At other times,
it's
quite good and is interesting to behold. It's all over the map.

Schaffner
also plays around with having entire sequences
filmed and acted out as believable and fairly "ordinary" scenes in
which
characters talk and interact with one another, before he lunges forward
into a
more dream-like mystique that seems intended to add a certain flavor to
the
film. These moments seem like attempts to make it more experimental and
artistic. Yet it doesn't all work out that well. It just seems odd to
me how
many sequences were handled like this and it doesn't really do the film
any
favors in its stylistic approach.

There
is one element that really dampened the film's overall
quality and it was inherent in both script and direction: this is a
film that
is undermined somewhat by its own obvious ambitions. This rarely
happens to a
film (though sometimes it does), and here is a good example of that.
Producer
Sam Spiegel (Lawrence of Arabia, On the
Waterfront) wanted this to be a
massive success and wanted big name actors and big, well, everything.

Yet
the film is constantly an undermined production because of
these elements. It just doesn't match
the ambition found displayed everywhere else. For every artistic moment
of
brilliance from the direction, acting, a costume, or make-up moment of
artistry
there's another element working unfavorably for the film's success. The
production seems to be overblown and has unfortunately failed to grasp
a clear
sense of unity through all artistic areas.

It's
odd to see a film where everyone involved seems to be
determined to make a masterpiece - an ambitious effort that wants to
succeed on
every level. That may be the biggest problem of them all. Most of the
movies
that I would describe as masterpiece material are masterpieces because
the
filmmakers succeeded in telling a great story exceedingly well. Not
because
something about the story they were telling seemed appropriate for the
label of
being a masterpiece by some suggestion of name or ambition inherent.

Yet
that's exactly what sometimes seems to be the point of this
as a production. It feels designed to win big, overwhelming, and
triumphant
amounts of Academy Awards. It doesn't
feel as if it designed to tell the audiences a story crafted with
precision
filmmaking. It feels like something made for awards potential, and I
rarely
ever feel that way about sweepingly epic productions.

I
appreciate the artistic merits of Nicholas
and Alexandra as a
production.
It is genuinely good in many regards and it is worth the recognition
for its
costumes and production designs and all of that other fine jazz that
helped
with the quality of the sets and other backdrop elements. It's really
just too
bad that the film doesn't work out as perfectly as the filmmakers
envisioned. Nicholas and Alexandra is
sometimes just an over-the-top dramatic period piece but
it's a worthwhile trip into an interesting passage in Russia's history
nonetheless.

The
Blu-ray:

Video:

Nicholas
and Alexandra at
lastarrives on Blu-ray with a 1080p High
Definition transfer which preserves the 2.35:1 aspect ratio of the
original
theatrical exhibition, as intended by director Franklin J. Schaffner
and
director of photography Freddie Young. Fans of the film will
undoubtedly find
themselves feeling pleased with the presentation quality.

This
is a well preserved
presentation. The film has never looked better than it does on this
quality High
Definition release. The transfer retains a reasonable amount of film
grain, has
good depth throughout the entire course, and color reproduction is
reasonably
strong. The transfer doesn't have the sorts of annoyances sometimes
found on
classic films: specks of dirt or damage and other big problematic
possibilities
aren't found here. The overall image is crisp and smooth. There is some
minor
softness, but it's something that seems to be the result of the source
material. I have little doubt that longtime fans will find this release
to
contain a worthy presentation in regards to the film's transfer.

Audio:

The
1.0 DTS-HD Master Audio is not even
remotely close to being as good as the film's video quality
presentation and it's
nothing that really ever impresses. Unlike the rather stunning HD
transfer, the
audio lacks a sense of real "punch" and flavor and feels rather dated.
This is
the result of an underwhelming audio source that was surely used for
the
original elements.

Everything
sounded slightly muffled to
me. The dialogue is understandable enough to follow but it is rather
soft and
the volume levels I use were actually disagreeable with this
presentation and had
to be raised significantly. This isn't just because of it being a mono
presentation,
either. It's certainly not that aspect. I just reviewed Easter
Parade (which had a magnificent sounding 1.0 lossless audio
track) and the comparison in quality seems rather drastic. The audio
disappoints
with an average lossless presentation with only some minor added depth,
clarity, and jubilance when it comes to the score. Nicholas
and Alexandra sounds altogether dated. Don't expect a
great presentation in the audio department on this release.

Additional
Screenshots:

Extras:

The
main supplement is an Isolated
Score Track containing the music of composer Richard Rodney Bennett.
This
receives a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 presentation. This was
certainly an
acclaimed score at the time of the film's release, and it earned the
composer an
Academy Award nomination. Fans of the score will enjoy this supplement.

There
is also a printed essay
written by Twilight Time's Julie Kirgo. She writes extensive notes
about the
film's behind the scenes production aspects and it makes for an
interesting and
quite worthwhile read for anyone interested in the film and its
creation.

Please
Note:

Video
Supplements
are included in1080p High Definition, but they are clearly dated and
are not as
stellar as some may hope to discover. Still, the effort to include
these
vintage featurettes in HD at all is something worth appreciating.

Royal
Daughters (8
min.) focuses on the actresses who portrayed the young Tsar's
daughters.

Changing
Faces (7
min.)
takes a look behind-the-scenes at the use of makeup on the film with
transforming the actors into their respective roles.

The
Royal Touch (6
min.)
is about the Academy Award winning costumes used on the film.

Original
Theatrical Trailer
(4:25)

Final
Thoughts:

Nicholas
and Alexandra offers
a bag of
decidedly mixed results. On the one hand, you have an entirely lush and
impressive scope in design with expansive sets, costumes, makeup, and
more
technical success at every corner of the film and elaborate efforts.
Conversely,
the film's really lacking characters that are easy to connect to.
Despite the
historical backdrop being significant there isn't as much time spent
trying to
develop characters to make audiences care about them and the film
suffers because
of that element. This is a historically interesting motion-picture a
viewer
will be able to recognize as an ambitious and worthy effort but it
doesn't meet
its own established sense of potential.

Longtime
fans of
Nicholas and Alexandra should be
pleased with the Blu-ray presentation even despite some disappointment
found with
the audio. For that audience, this release is a worthy purchase. The
video presentation and amount of extra supplemental material included
is
notable. As for everyone else, it's
worth seeking out for
history buffs hoping to see some extra artistic flair and creativity
but most
audience members should probably rent the film first and decide about a
purchase from
there.